


Junctus In Pluviam

by Raven_Hallowryn



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Drama, Drug Addiction, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Ghosts, Homelessness, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Nervous breakdowns, Other, Post-Canon, Post-Season 2, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rating May Change, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting, Shoplifting, Sparrow Academy Student Ben Hargreeves, Sparrow!Ben, Tags will be updated, The Hargreeves Need A Hug, The Hargreeves Siblings - Freeform, five burns out, five needs a nap, for now it's just family, implied prostitution, klaus is not ok, klaus takes care of everyone, none of the Umbrella kids are ok, not sure if there will be ship in this yet, one of the siblings is trans, the siblings take care of each other, two of the siblings are twins, will we ever find out who?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26077642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Hallowryn/pseuds/Raven_Hallowryn
Summary: Post-Season 2 Finale.The former Umbrella Academy siblings (minus one) have been forsaken by their would-be father. Now, they are on their own in world were they were never kept by Sir Reginald, a world that is so much like their own but so very different as well.With no knowledge of who they are supposed to be and the lives they are supposed to live in this timeline, the siblings are forced to rely on the only thing they have- each other.Luckily, one of them knows exactly how to survive in this situation.
Relationships: Ben Hargreeves & Everyone, Klaus Hargreeves & Everyone
Comments: 31
Kudos: 190





	1. Un-adopted

**Author's Note:**

> (Title is Latin for "Together Under The Rain")
> 
> This fic was based on [a dream I had after watching s2](https://valkerymillenia.tumblr.com/post/627278017687846913/i-had-a-dream-recently-that-was-the-immediate), people told me to make it a fic and I had a bunch of other plot bunnies I wanted to work on so I decided to mash them all into this fic.  
> I don't plan for it to be a very long fic but since I am incapable of brevity... I guess we'll see how it goes.  
> It will be focused a lot on Klaus at some point but I'll try to balance it out with other siblings' issues. Each chapter will be in a different siblings' PoV.
> 
> First chapter PoV- Klaus

“Dad, who the hell are these assholes?” Such a familiar voice. A voice that Klaus knew better than his own.

Was that Ben?

Ben was alive?

_Ben was alive!_

Most of the siblings were confused for a moment, they saw the man but took a while to recognize him, Klaus was the only one who really knew what Ben looked like as a full-grown adult after all. Nonetheless, they had seen his ghost materialize thanks to Klaus’s powers and they knew that face and that voice and slowly recognition dawned on them and confusion turned to shock.

Klaus’s reaction itself was a mix of shock and elation so intense that he found himself frozen to the spot, for the first time in his life he was at loss for words.

Klaus never really got a chance to mourn his brother, not really. His siblings mourned Ben as teenagers and young adults but Klaus had only just lost his brother, his constant companion, the Jiminy Cricket on his shoulder, days before when he stopped feeling and seeing the ghost of his better half, he’d been repressing that grief for a while and prioritizing the apocalypse and their return home and the fact that his siblings needed him.

Sure, Klaus wasn’t all that good at doing the right thing or even knowing what the right thing was, he was often so self-involved or distracted by the dead that he didn’t notice what was happening around him but he cared. Empathy for his siblings came naturally, it always had no matter how selfish they thought he was, he’d do anything for his family; he knew he could a burden and a hilarious annoyance half the time so the least he could do was be there for moral support, he’d damned if he allowed any of his siblings to suffer alone.

Yet, right at that moment Klaus couldn’t even remember that he had other siblings because Ben was standing right there and all of Klaus’s emotions that he had been pushing down came bubbling up and boiling over until he felt like his brain was short circuiting. He couldn’t tell right away if he was looking at ghost or the real thing but everyone else was staring too so it had to be real, it had to be Ben.

Except Ben never used that tone with them, he did call them assholes but it was always affectionate, and Ben never had a scar on his face, and that uniform was so appalling that he’d never be caught dead in it (pun fully intended). Worst of all, this Ben looking at him not with affection or concern or frustration or annoyance or even anger, but with something far worse- indifference.

This Ben acted like he didn’t even know Klaus in the first place.

It was Ben, but it wasn’t Ben. Not his Ben.

Nonetheless, Klaus still wanted to run to this Ben, still wanted to hug him and smack him for calling him an asshole. He was so lost between the that urge and the shock that he barely noticed daddy dearest was alive, barely registered that his siblings were talking to the hateful old man.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Someone, Luther apparently, was arguing with Dad. “What the hell is a Sparrow Academy?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Luther?” Five mocked, derisively and full of venom, but that tone was not directed at his brother, it was not Luther he was looking at. “He met us in ’63 and decided to change the timeline, he decided not to adopt us.”

“And who the fuck are these dudes?” Diego interjected, waving vaguely at the silent shadows standing imposingly on the balcony.

“I’m guessing Lila wasn’t the only wild card.” Five deduced, snarky and still staring down their father… or not father apparently. “Just how many of us were born that day? Because obviously,” he waved at the balcony people as well. “it was far more than you told us. What happened? Did the other parents not want to sell their miracle babies the first time around?”

“It is of no consequence.” Reginald dismissed. “I thought you would be pleased. You no longer have me to blame for your failures and shortcomings.”

“Wait, then what happened to us?” Allison asked, alarmed and confused, most likely thinking about what this meant for Claire.

“I haven’t the faintest idea, nor do I care.” Sir Reginald scoffed.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Luther asked, clearly distressed.

“Does this mean we’re free?” Klaus spoke without thinking, finally tearing his eyes away from Ben to look at Reginald.

The siblings stopped bickering for a moment and looked at Klaus, his words suddenly sinking in and expressions of surprise, wonder and even relief sparked in each of them. Except Five, he was still glaring daggers at their father.

Allison and Diego didn’t wait for a reply, as soon as they processed the implications of Klaus’s question they were heading to the door. Luther lingered in obvious distress, Vanya looked torn but stuck close to Five. Klaus went back to staring at Ben, or whatever his name was now, who was staring right back with a sour and challenging scowl.

“So you just washed your hands of us? What are we supposed to do now?” Luther sounded desperate, and a little pathetic, as he addressed Reginald.

“That is entirely your problem.” Sir Reginald huffed, the way he did whenever he was running out of patience, and glanced at not-Ben. “Number One, escort these trespassers out this instant.”

Ben immediately stepped forward but Five didn’t care in the slightest, he advanced further on Reginald and grabbed him by the collar with all the menace his gangly thirteen-year-old body could muster.

“I have a question.” Five asked in a hard voice, stopping Allison and Diego on their tracks and giving all the siblings flashbacks of that day at the breakfast table just before he disappeared for the better part of seventeen years. “How did you know which babies to keep and which to discard? We didn’t tell you where or when you found us or who our mothers were, even we don’t have that information.”

“I never said I did not acquire you. I simply did not keep you when it finally became clear who was who.” Reginald retorted drily. “Which, incidentally, would have been significantly easier if you had informed me that two of you are twins and one was assigned a different gender at birth.”

Reginald had the gall to sound irritated, inconvenienced, as if it was their job to be more forthcoming and aid in their own abandonment.

Five frowned, he let go and took a step back, his face set in stone and his mind reeling, they all could all guess that he was thinking of all the possibilities and consequences of this timeline, all the damage control they’d need to do. Isn’t that always how it was for Five?

“Twins? What twins?” Luther again, prioritizing the wrong thing; he looked around at his siblings as if they could answer, as if suddenly the answer would become obvious.

“You got rid of six children just like that? What did you do to us?” Vanya sounded appalled, angry (at least she had the right priorities), the air around her hummed dangerously and her eyes flashed white.

“Number One.” Sir Reginald called again, more insistently.

Ben snagged Klaus and then Five by the back of their shirts and tried to shove them into Luther and Vanya in the process of escorting them all out.

“Ben, please…” Klaus squirmed and then he was cling to the hideous uniform not-Ben had on. He begged but he wasn’t sure what he was begging for- please remember me? Please don’t do this? Please come with us? “Please, don’t… don’t leave me again, Ben.”

“Who the hell are you calling Ben?” Not-Ben practically growled, shoving Klaus off him.

“Why are you doing this?” Vanya spoke up once more, anger shifting into something far more dejected, her face crumpling as she watched Klaus try to reach not-Ben again. Suddenly, her voice boomed and rippled the air as she addressed the quiet figures above them. “Why are any of you still here? Why didn’t you leave him already?”

The shadowy figures shifted uncomfortably and appeared to be exchanging looks, Klaus noticed for the first time that one of them wasn’t even human, just a floating glowing cube that spun a little restlessly at the sound of their yelling.

Not-Ben paused too and gave him a troubled frown but a second later his attention shifted to Vanya he shook Klaus off again and tugged at his own shirt.

Familiar tentacles burst from not-Ben’s body and all hell broke loose.

Five immediately tried to push Klaus and Vanya out of the way, Allison and Diego rushed back to help them, Klaus and Luther tried scurry out of the way, Vanya landed on the floor with a hard thud that made the entire house start to rumble and shake. Between Vanya and Ben’s powers on the loose, the siblings just wanted to retreat as fast as possible, they trusted Vanya to control herself enough but they knew what Ben’s tentacles could do, had seen them tearing people in half on a regular basis.

Nonetheless, the tentacles caught them all and shoved them out the front door forcefully enough to chuck them onto the street like used soda cans and leave bruises even on Luther. For Ben’s standards it was careful, gentle even.

The front door slammed shut, leaving the six of them reeling on the wet sidewalk. It had started to rain, curtains of heavy fat drops distorting the air around them. Allison and Klaus immediately scrambled to Vanya, hugging her and whispering calming words until she managed to take a breath and stop making the whole block shake like a goddamn earthquake.

“What do we do now?” Luther asked what was on all of their minds.

“I told you we should have killed dad.” Diego interjected bitterly and for once nobody could really disagree.


	2. HQ

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PoV- Five

Their first priority was finding a place to stay, somewhere to be their headquarters until they figured out this new reality and where they fit into it. Five pointed out that this wasn’t like sixties again, in this time they existed and had lives, roles and identities that they needed to discover, they couldn’t just slip through the cracks and blend in like they did before.

Vanya offered her apartment up immediately seeing as it wasn’t all that far, Five resisted the urge to point out the obvious and decided it didn’t hurt to check it out, at the very least it would allow them to see for themselves that they couldn’t depend on anything they once knew.

When they got to the building it was clear that Vanya had never lived there, the walls were now covered in faded and damaged maroon wallpaper, the whole place smelled heavily of fur and patchouli and a friendly lady in her fifties claimed to have lived there for the past twelve years with her four cats.

They needed another option.

Five didn’t know where to go, excluding the Academy itself and Elliot’s place back in Dallas, all he remembered where the ruins of the apocalypse and the series of motels the Commission put him in while he worked. He could only hope his siblings had a better grasp of the city in this point in time but the idea of leaving it in their hands made him itch with discomfort and anxiety… Then again, maybe that was the uniform he’d been wearing for two weeks straight.

The only home Luther had ever known in this time period was the Academy. Klaus didn’t actually say the word ‘homeless’ but they all knew what ‘fresh out of rehab’ meant for him, after all he had settled so willingly into the Academy during the funeral that it was obvious he hadn’t had anywhere else to go.

Allison’s house was supposed to be in LA but if she had never been in the Umbrella Academy then it was possible she had never become an actress, a quick glance at a magazine stand showed zero mention of celebrity Allison Hargreeves and a stubborn visit to the nearby movie theater showed that her last film was starred by someone else entirely. Allison broke down on the sidewalk in front of the theater, sobbing about Claire, with her face in Luther’s chest and Vanya and Klaus hugging her but not knowing what to say to comfort her.

Five himself was distressed on Allison’s behalf, these changes didn’t bode well at all, he had hoped Allison might still be famous, it would have made things easier, one less thread to worry about in the timeline tapestry. He tried to hide his anxiety by pacing while the others comforted his sister. He also tried really hard not to be a dick and comment on the time they were wasting, he kept his mouth shut instead, after all, there was no longer a countdown to worry about, there was no doomsday clock, Five just didn’t know how to function without the deadline.

Why couldn’t he stay still? Why was his heart beating so fast? Why did he want to snap at his siblings to get a move on? Why did it feel like if he stopped moving the world was going to come crashing down around him? Christ, he needed some coffee.

Diego finally piped in that they could try Al’s Gym. His little boiler room apartment might not be his either and definitely wouldn’t fit all of them but he could make a deal with the Al of this timeline, the man might let them stay if Diego (and maybe Luther) were willing to work for him.

So they made their way to the gym… Only to find the windows boarded up, the door locked and graffitied and the sign above it falling apart. But it was the best they had so far.

Five blipped into gym, unlocked the door and let them in.

The whole place was covered in dust, the lights weren’t working, a lot of gym equipment was still lying around among old beer bottles and trash from loiterers, the walls and floor were littered with old boxing match posters that were yellowed and brittle and sprayed with graffiti in many places; the only thing intact seemed to be the actual boxing ring and Al’s old desk.

“What the hell happened here?” Luther asked in a low voice, looking around in confusion. “I mean, the place wasn’t that amazing but last time I was here it was packed.”

Diego was staring silently at the posters on the walls, running the tips of his fingers over several of them before he paused and sighed, shoulders drooping.

“It’s my fault.” Diego announced with sudden clarity, causing all the siblings to stare at him quizzically.

“What do you mean?” Luther prompted for more of an explanation.

Diego threw a knife that curved to land on a specific poster for 2014, ‘Baily vs Blackman’ was printed on it in big bold letters under black and white pictures of two men.

“I was supposed to fight Baily, he was this big wig from the Olympia downtown, and I was a rookie and an underdog. Al took a risk sponsoring me because he didn’t have anything to lose at the time.” Diego explained, tiredly, and hopped onto what used to be Al’s desk. “I won. It was a big deal for the gym, created a very public rivalry between Olympia’s and Al’s, and Al milked the publicity as much as he could, it brought in a bunch of new fighters and business boomed.”

“But you never a fighter here in this timeline.” Five nodded his understanding. “So that match was different, Bailey probably won and Al’s went bankrupt.”

Diego nodded right back and scratched his neck and side, twitching uncomfortably. “Does anyone else feel itchy since we got back?”

Luther, who had been in the process of trying to scratch between his shoulder blades, paused and looked around at the various nods their siblings gave. He almost jumped at attention, turning to Five in alarm.

“This isn’t a paradox psychosis thing, is it?” The big lug looked frantic and approached Five, he went as far as wiping the sweat off Five’s forehead with his sleeve. Why was Five sweating?

“What? No.” Five scoffed impatiently and shook his brother off him. “We aren’t existing in close proximity to ourselves, Luther, these are just side-effects of the time travelling with the briefcase.”

“Yeah, full body itch and headache like someone shoved a box of cotton up your nose.” Klaus grumbled dramatically, quoting Five, and flopped onto his back on the ring. He’d been surprisingly quiet so far but grumbled miserably. “I need a drink.”

“Wait, in this timeline we weren’t the Umbrella Academy so odds are we never time travelled, right?” Luther tried to rationalize, his brows scrunched in concentration. “Shouldn’t there be another set of us around?”

“That’s not how this works.” Five clicked his tongue, annoyed, and started pacing around the gym again as he talked, looking for any vulnerabilities in the structure, he needed them to be safe if they were going to stay for any amount of time. “We belong in this point in time, there are no duplicates, the only reason we don’t remember this timeline at all is because we were existing outside of it when the changes occurred.”

“Didn’t you say that sort of change would make us disappear? Like when you sent your old self back?” Luther again, still sounding panicked. What did he even have to be panicked about? Couldn’t he just trust Five on this?

“Not in this case. That’s only if we were outside our time and changed something that directly prevented us from travelling or retroactively killed us, then we would disappear.” Five dumbed it down for Luther but Diego and their sisters seemed to be paying just as much attention, so he rolled his eyes and continued explaining. “But this is the time we belong to and we were outside of it when the changes happened, nothing short of death somewhere in the timeline would make us disappear. The problem is, I don’t know if we’ll ever gain the memories of this timeline or lose the ones from the original one, it’s uncharted territory and the Commission was very hush-hush about any consequences of this particular scenario.”

“Wait, wait… Hold your horses for a moment, Fivey.” Klaus finally piped up, sitting up suddenly and accidentally tangling himself in the ring’s ropes for a moment before he finally slipped free. “Death? Is this why Ben disappeared when were back in ’63? Something changed in that moment that directly led to him not dying in our timeline so his ghost stopped existing?”

Five paused to look at Klaus, he wished it didn’t surprise him to hear his brother make so much sense, but it did. He was also surprised because he hadn’t actually realized that Ben’s ghost had been with them or that he had disappeared, and now Five felt stupid for not being in the loop, he wasn’t supposed to miss these things. He wasn’t supposed to miss _anything_.

“Most likely.” Five grit his teeth, resisting the urge to yell at them for not telling him about such a crucial detail.

“So it wasn’t my fault?” Vanya sounded hopeful and so sad as she looked at him with her huge Bambi eyes. “My powers weren’t destroying him?”

“How should I know? I’m not the human ouija board here!” Five snapped, loudly, and regretted it exactly a second later when Vanya flinched. What was wrong with him? Why was everything so irritating? He took a breath and waved dismissively at Klaus. “Ask someone who actually understands ghosts.”

“Understands is a bit of an exaggeration, my powers are more like trying pole dance on greased up bonsai while drunk and to a crowd of hysterical screaming frat boys instead of music…”

“Klaus!” Luther barked when Klaus started to ramble.

“Ok, ok.” Klaus lifted his tattooed hands up in surrender and pouted but actually seemed to be considering the question. “I guess I’ve never seen anything ‘killing’ a ghost, they can get… Melty and disappear for a while… or something, but they always reform. Unless they cross over? I don’t know, I’m not the little girl on the bike.”

“What girl?” Luther scowled, confused and irritated. “What does that even mean…?”

“It’s Klaus, you’re lucky you got a semi-coherent answer.” Diego sounded annoyed that Klaus seemed to not be taking things seriously. As usual.

Klaus cheekily stuck his tongue out at Diego, who rolled his eyes and scoffed.

There was something else though, Diego had sounded even harsher than usual, and he looked… Sad. After the exchange he took to staring at the knife in his hand with way too much focus, and his face had grief smeared all over it. Five really wished he knew what his brother was thinking.

“So what do we do now?” Allison asked, dejected and tired. She had been quiet in her corner, her eyes still red and puffy from all her crying earlier.

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” Five huffed and grabbed an old poster off the floor. He needed a pen to start jotting down ideas and spotted one on the floor by the desk, so he blipped up next to Diego.

“You know, I joked about wanting to be un-adopted a least a dozen times but this is just ridiculous.” Diego grumped, tossing and catching his knife over and over.

“Me too!” Five retorted with honesty instead of sarcasm for once, he almost cracked a sardonic smile before he threw the pen in frustration when it refused to work.

“Hey, quick question?” Klaus raised his arm to grab attention and stumbled over to Five. “Why don’t we go back to Dallas? I don’t know what happened to my cult but maybe my house is still there?”

“No.” Five snapped, leaving no room for argument. He couldn’t handle Klaus’s stupid ideas, he specially couldn’t have any siblings running off.

“Why nooooot?” Klaus whined the words, honest to god whined, as he draped himself on Five’s shoulders. His voice was loud and annoying and Five already felt too warm and heavy without someone a head taller on top of him.

“Because…” Five growled out, trying to shove his brother off. “…if Dad brought us here before he got rid of us then we might have lives here that we need to figure out.”

“What if he sent us back to our mothers?” Allison frowned, she had never figured out exactly where she had come from.

Mom had been vague about most of them, choosing various names that were common in their birth places and allowing them to pick their favorites; in hindsight, it was probably because she wasn’t allowed to encourage their curiosity about their birth but still wanted them to connect to their origins, she had a knack for twisting dad’s programming like that.

Five knew Allison’s name picks had made it hard to pinpoint her birth country, he remembered because she was the first one to leave her number behind, there had been African names mixed with European ones and at the time she hadn’t really thought about it, just picked what sounded prettier and would look good as a stage name. Five remembered all that and now he worried they might never find Allison’s place in this timeline, not if Reginald sent them back to where they came from.

“Then we’re screwed and unless Sir Reginald kept purchase invoices for the babies he bought, invoices that we can steal, then we have no way of figuring out who the hell we are in this timeline.” Five started pacing again as he talked, partially to dodge Klaus again and partially because he couldn’t breathe unless he moved.

“We could try to find ourselves in a phone book…?” Diego suggested, cautiously, and traded a look with Luther. Of course the idiots would be on the same wavelength.

“And under what names exactly?” Five knew he sounded near hysterical, but the fact was he couldn’t actually think of a better idea, even as he shot theirs down. “If Dad got rid us as soon as he figured out our powers that means we were toddlers, we didn’t have names yet, odds are we were named something different.”

“Shit.” Diego stabbed his knife into the table.

“Maybe we’re still under Hargreeves?” Vanya suggested, also so carefully and tentative. Why did they all sound like they were walking on eggshells? Why were they all staring at Five? What did they expect from him? Well, at least they were actually listening to him for once.

“…Maybe.” Five conceded with a sigh.

A small silence dragged between them. Five could still feel their eyes on him as he continued to pace, practically vibrating in place as he thought of the next fifteens moves he could make to fix this mess. He needed to tell them _something_ , he needed a plan, he needed to keep the family together, he needed… Fuck, he was so tired, he needed a caffeine drip, stat.

“Are you ok?” Allison murmured when Five passed her in his pacing, she was staring at him with concern and kindness.

It pissed him off.

Of course he wasn’t ok! But so what? He didn’t have time to be time coddled, he had to do something, he couldn’t stop. Five felt his expression harden and opened his mouth to snap again but Luther beat him to it with a simple question.

“Is anyone else hungry?”

“I could go for some grub.” Klaus, who had given up on bothering Five, sprung up immediately. “A nice pipping hot bowl of wonton soup.”

“We do need to eat.” Vanya stated, very diplomatically, when it looked like Five was about to argue. “Even you, Five.”

“Anyone have any money for dinner?” Allison, ever the responsible one.

“A little, but won’t me need it later?” Vanya rummaged through her pockets as she spoke, prompting Diego, Luther and Allison to do the same and pool the money together.

They barely had eighty bucks between all of them, which wouldn’t be so bad in the sixties but was terrible in 2019.

“And that’s my cue.” Klaus announced in a sing-song voice, already sashaying to the door and beckoning his siblings to follow. “Put your money away, boys and girls, let papa Klaus buy you dinner.”

“This better not involve shoplifting.” Diego grumbled under his breath, even though he didn’t hesitate to follow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Five is burning out, anxiety is eating him up. Don't worry, everyone will notice soon.


	3. Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings have dinner and a chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> POV- Luther
> 
> This chapter is dialogue heavy and super self-indulgent but it was a plot bunny that was stuck in my head forever and I needed to write it. I promise the actual plot will start moving along now.

“You know, this is actually pretty good.” Allison conceded, setting down her fork and taking a sip of her lemonade.

They were at a local soup kitchen, all crammed into a too small table and scarfing down a fairly decent rendition of lemon chicken with roasted vegetables. Five got lucky, they had coffee and didn’t ask questions about his age. Even Luther got away with requesting a double serving because the nuns looked up at his massive bulk and decided the boy needed extra fuel to keep that monster truck of a body moving.

“Right?” Klaus beamed with way too much enthusiasm and speaking too loudly and overly cheerful. “Wait until you try the éclairs, they get all their desserts from the Hilton down the block, fancy rich people leftovers.”

“Klaus, we grew up with a millionaire for a father.” Allison pointed out with a conspiratorial smile.

“Pssh, details.” Klaus waved her off and took a sloppy bite off his dessert. “Oh my god, this is like an orgasm in my mouth. I might need a cigarette after this.”

“I hate to admit it, but you came through this time, Klaus.” Luther admitted, his tone tentative, he didn’t want Klaus to start getting cocky over a little compliment.

“Well, you’re in my turf now, mein bruder.” Klaus grinned through a mouthful of chocolate and cream.

“What turf?” Diego levelled his brother with a curious but grumpy look.

“The streets, sweetheart.” Klaus chugged down some lemonade and took another bite of his pastry.

“Yeah, yeah, this is all lovely, but can we get back on track? We need to decide what are we going to do now.” Five interjected, he still looked a little sweaty and hadn’t touched any food other than the éclair, he was also on his third cup of coffee and wouldn’t stop bouncing his leg under the table.

“Since when is it a discussion? Aren’t you the one that always has all the plans?” Diego shot at the gangly murder baby they called brother. 

Five frowned but before he could shoot back with some sarcastic remark, Vanya’s voice caught their attention.

“Dad abandoned us, maybe we never even grew up together…What if we’re not family anymore?” Vanya’s voice wasn’t the shy nervous thing Luther remembered from their teen years, it was far blunter and more confident but still soft and filled with so much uncertainty and anxiety that he couldn’t help but be infected by her sadness. The way she was moving her carrots around listlessly and refusing to look at them didn’t help his discomfort either.

Luther swallowed nervously and voiced his worry too. “We’re not going to go separate ways, are we?”

He didn’t want to admit it but he couldn’t stand the idea of being alone again. Luther had latched onto Jack because he didn’t know how to be alone, Five was right- he wanted guidance and reassurance; and then he got a glimpse of what life could be like when all of his siblings banded together, when they actually acted like a real family, and he didn’t want that to end. He wanted to make up for all the years they wasted competing with each other just because Dad said so, all those years being selfish and cutting one another off, all that time being miserable and full of resentment.

“What? Of course not!” Allison sounded outraged by the mere thought and smacked Luther’s shoulder for even saying such a thing (probably because she couldn’t reach his head).

“Vanya, of course we’re family.” Five interjected with a sigh that made him sound tired and as old as he truly was, he took one of their sister’s hands between both of his. “It doesn’t matter what happened in this timeline, neither Dad nor a piece of paper can dictate who our family is. You’ll never alone again, not if I have a say in it.”

“Yeah, we all remember growing up together. As long as we love each other, we’re family.” Klaus ginned and bumped his shoulder against Vanya’s, his head tipping onto her shoulder, but then his grin faltered just a fraction and his eyes narrowed as he looked around the table at all of them. “We _do_ love each other, right? And I don’t mean in a you two kind of way.” He wiggled his ‘Goodbye’ hand a little mockingly between Luther and Allison.

“Klaus!” Allison smacked his arm, a slight flush darkening her cheeks. Luther tried very, _very,_ hard not to read too deeply into that, but he could feel his own face warming up a little as he avoided everyone’s eyes.

“Of course we all love each other, dumbass!” Diego piled on, throwing one of his green beans at their brother, it hit Klaus right between the eyes but somehow he managed to catch it in his mouth and chew it down noisily with a cheeky grin.

“Yeah, are you blind? Why the hell would we keep risking our lives in these past weeks and leaving behind people we cared about if we didn’t love each other?” Allison added, practically pouting now, but that didn’t stop her from instinctively trying to wipe Klaus’s face with a napkin.

“Ok, ok, geez! I was just checking!” Klaus laughed lightly and slung his arm over Vanya’s shoulder, stage whispering in her ear. “See? Told you so.”

“The point is, we’re not separating until we fix this mess.” Five announced and Luther knew that wasn’t up for debate. Maybe he should resent the order but he didn’t, it was comforting.

Luther had realized a while ago that leadership wasn’t his thing, that he had been miserable trying to live up to Dad’s standards and lead when in reality all he wanted was to protect and be on equal footing with his siblings. He was happy being the muscle, the bodyguard; let someone else take charge and shoulder the responsibility, someone not crippled by constant doubt and a need for approval. 

“I mean, we have before…” Vanya trailed off uneasily, but she leaned to Klaus and didn’t let go of Five’s hand.

“That was before, all we have right now is each other, we’re not making the same mistakes again.” Five assured, giving the rest of them a sharp glare, clearly daring them to contradict him.

“What about Ben?” Klaus asked, head still tipped against Vanya’s.

“That’s not our Ben.” Five shook his head and tried to dismiss the matter but that just made Klaus hiss.

“It’s still Ben! He might not remember us but he’s alive! We can’t just leave him behind and let Dad do whatever he wants with him.” Klaus argued, finally sitting straight again.

“Klaus…” Luther started.

“No!” Klaus interrupted, smacking his ‘Hello’ hand on the gray tabletop. “I get it, you’re all used to not having Ben around but, I don’t care, I’m not going to give up on him.”

Luther didn’t remember the last time he saw Klaus looking so upset, he couldn’t even remember Klaus being so confrontational and stubborn, he was usually flaky and gave up quickly, but at that moment Klaus was practically snarling, eyes too bright and blinking too fast with his hands balled into fists.

Luther had no idea what he was supposed to say to that, it’s not that he disagreed, of all of them Luther had been stuck with their father the longest and he didn’t wish that on anyone, he knew how that could mess someone up, but if Ben didn’t even know them then why would he listen? He had a new family now, didn’t he?

“…” Diego opened his mouth to reply but ended up frowning and falling into a thoughtful silence. Everyone else seemed to awkwardly agree, they were all tense and quiet.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.” Luther reached across the table to pat Klaus’s hand, the promise seemed to work and Klaus deflated.

“Speaking of Dad…” Klaus pulled his hand away, voice going light and almost sing-song, his mood and expression swung so fast it almost gave them whiplash and suddenly he looked curious as he picked up his fork and waved it around. “Are we going to ignore the giant gorilla in the room?”

“Hey!” Luther protested with a scowl. So much for being nice to the class clown.

“Not you.” Klaus giggled but then immediately tilted his head and raised a thoughtful brow. “Well, maybe you.”

“What are you talking about?” Diego frowned, annoyed by Klaus’s dawdling.

“The twin thing!” Klaus waved his fork precariously again, prompting Allison to pluck it from his hand before he poked someone’s eye out.

“Oh.” Luther let the surprised sound slip out. He was curious too, really curious, if he was honest. “Right. So…?”

“Well, it’s not me or Allison.” Diego stabbed into a potato and raised his hands. “Thank god.”

“Gee, thanks, Diego.” Luther grumbled through a pout.

“I just don’t need the drama.” Diego shrugged but he seemed very smug.

“I don’t know, it would be kind of cool to have a twin.” Allison sounded thoughtful and smiled at each sibling as if she was considering the options, except Luther, she pointedly avoided Luther’s eyes this time.

“So who do you think it is?” Vanya sounded more invested now, almost cheerful compared to earlier.

Luther figured the topic change was good for them, it had been a crappy long day and it was just one more secret Dad kept from them but if debating that mystery distracted everyone, if it gave them something else to bond over, then it might be a good thing.

“My money is on Luther and Five.” Klaus declared, pointing at both aforementioned brothers on opposite ends of the table.

“What? Why?” Luther startled and looked at Five.

He wasn’t sure how he would feel is Klaus was right- he loved Five, he really did, but he had nothing in common with the cocky little bastard… But, well, thinking about it made him feel kind of fond, confused but fond.

“I just think it’s funny. Big guy and little guy.” Klaus smirked and mimed their heights for emphasis.

“Well, you do both have the brain thing.” Diego nodded and reluctantly conceded Klaus’s point.

“What brain thing?” Luther frowned, growing more and more confused.

“Five is a super smart human calculator and you have photographic memory.” Diego retorted with an eye roll, as if it was so obvious. “Isn’t that how you managed to learn all the skills to be youngest person in orbit, Space Boy?”

“He has a point.” Allison shrugged.

“We look nothing alike.” Luther grumbled and glanced at Five again- why was the little twerp so quiet?

“That’s why it’s funny!” Klaus laughed and tried to steal what was left of Diego’s dessert only to get his hand smacked away.

Luther frowned further, he noticed that Five had the same troubled frown on his face too but instead of talking he drowned himself in his coffee cup, leg still bouncing impatiently.

“What about Five and Vanya?” Luther suggested.

“How the hell did you get to that conclusion?” Diego was getting weirdly invested in the topic, he always did like a good mystery, even if he lacked the patience for such things.

“Five never got named so we aren’t sure where he was born, and they both have blueish glowy powers and they were always so close even without anything in common. Could be a twin thing.” Luther shrugged, it was flimsy but it was as good a theory as what they dubbed the ‘brain thing’.

“Klaus has blue glowy powers too. Why not him and Vanya? They look a bit alike.” Allison pointed out while taking small bites of her dessert.

“Klaus was born in Germany. I was born in Russia.” Vanya countered with certainty.

“Can we _really_ be sure of that?” Allison looked skeptically at their sister.

“Yes.” Both Vanya and Klaus answered at the same time without missing a beat.

“You two sound really sure.” Luther cocked a brow at them and sipped on his drink.

“My mom spoke German.” Klaus answered almost as an afterthought.

“How do you even…?” Allison frowned and stared at their brother, forcing Klaus to think about what he just said.

“Oh, she was one of the first ghosts that haunted me. Used to sing me lullabies in German when we were little… Well, when she wasn’t screaming and wailing in my ear.” Klaus rolled his eyes at that last part with a dumb grin that didn’t reach his eyes, he then picked up his paper cup and drained it.

None of them were actually sure if Klaus was serious or trying to get attention again, they traded brief glances but nobody was inclined to take Klaus at his word, he was known to make up all sorts of wild stories after all, even if this one seemed a little bit different than his usual random anecdotes. If it was a joke, it was a very poor one.

“You never told us that.” Vanya spoke softly, voicing what they were all thinking, and placed a hand on Klaus’s lower back.

Klaus just shrugged absentmindedly and pulled out his flask to take a swig, completely ignoring how everyone was staring at him.

Luther cleared his throat and tried to get back on topic by turning to Vanya. “What makes _you_ so sure?”

“I remember my birth.” Vanya replied with ease but when everyone just stared at her waiting for the joke she frowned. “What?”

“You what now?” Allison beat everyone to the question.

“When the FBI… _interrogated_ me. When my memories started coming back, I remembered bits and pieces of my birth.” Vanya explained with a slightly distant look in her eyes as she tried to remember the details. “Public swimming pool, everybody was speaking Russian.”

“Was there another baby?” Diego asked, still focused on the twin thing rather than the massive revelation Vanya had just dropped on them. He always did have a one-track mind.

Vanya’s forehead scrunched in concentration as she thought about it but, ultimately, she shrugged as well. “…I don’t know. Maybe? Like I said, bits and pieces.”

“What did she look like? Your mother?” Five finally said something, he was staring pointedly at their sister, as if the information was vital.

“Short, I think… My perspective was kinda skewed…” Vanya chuckled and thought about it further. “She had brown hair, soft brown eyes, she couldn’t be older than fifteen or sixteen, someone called her Tatiana. She was so young, I’m not really surprised she sold me to Dad.”

“Klaus? Seem familiar?” Five turned to their brother expectantly.

“Huh? Oh, I don’t know, maybe?” Klaus waved distractedly and tucked his hair behind his ear. “I never caught mommy’s name but I guess the description could fit. Ghosts don’t always as great as they did alive, you know? She kinda looked like a drowning victim, honestly.”

“Well, Germany and Russia are very different places so Vanya and Klaus can’t be the twins.” Diego interjected. One-track mind, seriously.

“Actually…” Luther countered. “When we were born, part of Germany belonged to Russia. For another month anyway.”

Diego’s face fell instantly. “…Shit.”

“Right, I forgot that.” Vanya nodded in agreement. 

“You know, Luther is also a Germanic name and he’s very...” Allison waved at Luther in general. “You know.”

“What?” Luther tilted his head, curious.

“Tall, blue eyed, blonde.” She listed while twirling her hand.

“Yeah, Arian.” Diego agreed bluntly. “So Klaus and Luther?”

“Hell no.” The tallest retorted without even thinking.

“Wow, thanks, monkey man.” Klaus stuck his tongue out at Luther but his pout was exaggerate and humorous. “Wouldn’t want to be twins with you anyway.”

“We are nothing alike!” Luther knew he kept harping on the same excuse and he tried to sound apologetic but it just came out defensive.

“That doesn’t really mean anything.” Allison rationalized. “But by that logic, why not Luther and Vanya?”

Luther and Vanya looked at each for a long quiet moment and then they both just let out a very certain- “No.”

“Wow, talking in unison! Very twin-y!” Klaus teased with a giggle.

“Oh, shush.” Allison elbowed Klaus lightly but she chuckled too.

“Would it be so bad, Luther?” Vanya smiled softly but looked sad, pained, and uncertain. “We’re already siblings anyway, so what’s the difference?”

“I… It’s not…bad.” How was he supposed to explain that he didn’t hate the idea? That it was a matter of guilt? The way Luther had treated Vanya, not just during all the havoc of the first apocalypse but during their whole childhood too, was bad enough for regular siblings but if they were twins? Luther wasn’t sure he could forgive himself for not protecting her better and he really didn’t want to think too deeply about it. “Either way, that’s not the point. The twins are obviously Klaus and Five.”

“And how, pray tell, did you reach that conclusion?” It was Five’s turn to be skeptical and arch a critical brow at his brother.

“Green eyes. You both have green eyes.” Luther stated, to him it was a very telling fact but nobody else seemed impressed.

“We _do_ have a lovely matching set of peepers.” Klaus fluttered his lashes exaggeratedly at Five and laughed when their shorter brother flipped him off.

“So what?” Diego asked with an eye roll.

“Do you know how rare green eyes are?” Luther asked, passionately, and certain of his theory. “2%. People with green eyes make up only 2% of the world’s population. What are the odds that in a group of seven random kids, two would have green eyes and _not_ be the twins?”

“See, that sort of fun fact stored in your big brain is what makes me think it’s you and Five.” Klaus sassed.

“What does any of this matter? We’re all siblings anyway.” Luther tossed her arms up in frustration, he still thought he was right though.

“It could make it easier to track down at least two of our identities.” Five retorted drily.

“You know, Luther’s point reminds me of something…” Allison spoke up cautiously, her eyes narrowed as she considered her next words carefully. “Don’t we all share the same blood type too? I really never thought about it until…” She touched the scar on her throat, shielding it almost subconsciously, and trailed off awkwardly. “Anyway, what are the odds of that?”

Luther instantly placed a hand comfortingly over Allison’s shoulder, but he couldn’t help the anxiety that bubbled somewhere around his solar plexus because she was right.

He hated thinking of Allison bleeding out in his arms, but she was right, at the time nothing mattered but saving her, all he thought of was how much he hated that they should all have been able to save her but ultimately only Diego could do anything because despite their compatibility Luther’s body had been too mutated, Klaus’s blood was still too toxic and Five had nearly bled out himself not long before.

The idea of compatibility being a problem never even crossed his mind, they were always vaguely aware that they shared the same blood type, there had been transfusions after tricky missions when one person or another got hurt, it was just a normal part of their life that they never thought much about, and yet now that he actually considered it… That compatibility was as unlikely as multiple unrelated people with green eyes in the same group.

“That’s… That’s actually a good point.” Luther hesitated, not sure he wanted to think too hard on this.

“You don’t think… Shit…” Diego gulped, audibly and his stutter started to slip out. “You d-don’t think we have the s-s-same f-father… or wh-whatever made us, do…do you?”

The silence that followed was the very definition of awkward. Diego was probably thinking about Lila but Luther let his hand slip away from Allison as they all traded blank (and in some cases, mildly panicked) looks for a whole five seconds, and then… The bubble popped, the tension fizzed out and they all started talking over each other.

“Nah.” Luther and Klaus said at the same time with utmost certainty, the latter snickering a little.

“Nope.” Diego and Allison both shook their heads and scoffed as if it was the stupidest thing they ever heard.

“That’s insane.” Vanya waved her hands in denial and smiled nervously.

“Idiots.” Five muttered into his coffee, rolling his eyes dismissively. 

“Excuse me?” A woman’s voice suddenly cut in and they all turned around to see a portly, bespectacled, redheaded volunteer standing nearby with a smile and broom in hand. “Do you mind? We are closing for the night.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who aren't aware, Five and Luther are canonically twins in the comics but it's only mentioned in passing and they were never aware of it until the Commission uses this info to blackmail Five and Allison.  
> In this fic/AU, two of the siblings are twins but it's NOT Luther and Five, though that option does occur to them and serves an incentive to bond.
> 
> Also, yay for Kenny's mom. I missed her in s2 so I had to slip her in.


	4. His Fault

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five burns out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PoV- Allison

After dinner they cut through the park on their way back to the gym. It was quiet at that time of night and allowed them the freedom to talk without turning too many heads.

It was pretty jarring to Allison, she was so used to turning heads- before for being a celebrity, and back in the sixties for the color of her skin, but now nobody gave her a second glance, in fact the rare passerby was more likely to stare that Luther’s huge bulk or Klaus’s cowboy hat than anything else.

Nonetheless, the good mood of dinner hadn’t lasted very long. Five was too on edge, practically twitching and cranky, and brought them right back where they started with his concerns.

“We need to find our identities.” The smaller sibling insisted. “I can try to steal whatever info Dad has but we also need to scour phonebooks, newspapers for any articles about people with unexplained abilities, anything with the slightest possibility of referencing one of us.”

“Well, we need to survive first.” Luther interjected, ever concerned for everyone. “What do we do next? We need jobs, right?”

“No, we need to figure out our identities first, we might already have jobs.” Five insisted again and it spurred everyone to start talking over one another. Everyone except Klaus, who seemed to have finally drained his flask completely and was trailing behind and enjoying the show and walking barefoot on the concrete path, occasionally giving distracted glances at nothing.

“But in the meantime, how do we survive?” Luther arguing, harping on his point.

“We should really kill Dad though.” Diego suggested, unsurprisingly, for his part.

“I need to find out if Claire exists.” Allison decided, pretty much ignoring the squabbling.

“What about Ben? Maybe he could help us?” Vanya suggested cautiously.

“Guys, guys…!” Klaus called loudly, he finally had enough of the squabbling and stumbled his way to the front of the group, he turned to look at them as he walked backwards. “Listen, first rule of homelessness- immediate priorities. Extended plans come later.” Explained like a veteran and lifted his fingers to count. “You know, shelter, water, drugs… Wait, no, scratch that last one, I meant next meal. Anyway, we have the gym for now, gotta focus on water, food, clothes and essentials. Then you can think of the rest.”

“Do we really want to be sleeping in a condemned gym, though?” Vanya asked doubtfully.

“Trust me, it’s waaaay better than a shelter.” Klaus rolled his eyes but it was playful.

“Ok, then we need money.” Allison announced, looking around at all of them. “We have skills, we can find work.”

“Problem.” Five lifted a hand sarcastically. “We don’t have ID’s, right now we are completely undocumented

“So? We did that in the sixties too.” Luther shrugged.

“Different times, Luther.” Diego clicked his tongue in annoyance. “In case you haven’t notice, people like me are pretty scrutinized nowadays.”

“You didn’t really blend in in the sixties either. How long did you last before they chucked in the nuthouse? A day?” Luther bit back a little harshly.

Diego raised his fists with a venomous reply on his tongue, everybody got ready to pull them apart and yelled at them to stop it but Diego’s vitriol never came because Five spoke over him.

“Diego’s right.” The shorter sibling conceded. “It’s different this time, it’s harder for all seven of us to fit in in this time period without papers. We might even have police records and we should avoid those.”

It was at that moment that they arrived at the gym. They had decided the back entrance attracted less attention so Five blinked in and unlocked it for them.

If they were going to camp out there for any amount of time, they probably needed to fix the lock situation, they couldn’t keep counting on Five every time they needed to get in. Allison was actually fiddling with rusted knob, deep in thought when Klaus wrapped an around her shoulder and apparently read her mind.

“Drugstore. We bust this lock and just buy a padlock to install ourselves and copy enough keys for everyone. It’s not hard, sis.” Klaus fake whispered in her ear before letting go and walking into the gym.

“You’ve done this often?” Allison asked, following after him as the others bickered about whatever.

“Watched squatters do it a lot, but me? Nah, I didn’t bother locking anything.” Klaus sprawled out on the ring, tangled on the ropes, it was rapidly becoming a favorite spot for him but his eyes flickered rapidly to all the dark corners and that manic energy of his seemed to be thrumming under his skin as always. 

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Allison asked with concern in her voice.

“Not when you have your own personal invisible bodyguard.” Klaus grinned but then his face fell and he glanced around like he was still hoping Ben would pop up behind him, he clutched the dog tags on his chest without thinking. “Anyway, did I ever tell you about the time I snuck into the zoo and crashed in the flamingo enclosure all night?”

Allison rolled her eyes at the story but bit the inside of her lip, she knew he was dodging and she knew better than to dwell on the subject of Ben just yet, instead she focused on all the stumbling their siblings were doing in the dark, trying to orient themselves.

“I miss electricity.” Vanya sighed from somewhere to the left, a moment later there was a hum going through the air and a steadily growing light spilling out of the sister in question, her eyes and skin turning an eerie white but giving everyone just enough light to gather around her by the ring.

“Oh well, if that’s what bothering you.” Klaus jumped up again, swaying and moving erratically like he always did even though Allison was pretty sure he wasn’t drunk.

Klaus took Vanya’s hand and skipped his way into the back rooms. “You make a million-dollar flashlight, Vanny.”

There was some noise, mostly rusty metal creaking and some cursing, but before anyone else could follow they were out again and Klaus snagged one of Diego’s knives before walking outside.

“Should we follow him?” Vanya, now left behind to light the room for the others, wondered confused.

“What for? It’s Klaus.” Diego scoffed and sat next to Vanya. “So how’s this going to work?”

“What?” Both Vanya and Luther wondered.

“Can’t we just use the briefcase to go back and fix this?” Diego suggested, anxiously twirling another knife. “Herbie might help us.”

“And what, exactly, would you change in order to fix this? How do you know you won’t make it all worse? What thread could you pull without making the whole timeline collapse?” Five spat back acidly.

“We could just not meet Dad in ’63.” Luther offered.

“No, that has to stay.” Five decided with no margin for discussion.

“Why?” Allison would rather forget that not-supper entirely, she couldn’t stand remembering how their father had so viciously cut into her brothers.

“It doesn’t matter!” Five snapped evasively, using Vanya’s light to shift through the sparse drawers of Al’s desk.

“And if you feel that you can't go on, in the light you will find the road!” Klaus had returned and spoke in his flamboyant and overly sweet, sing-song cult leader voice just as he flicked on the switch. “If you are ever alone, I would share your load, I would share your load. Baby, let me, oh, let me! In the light. Everybody needs the light, In the light, in the light, in the light!”

“What. The. Fuck?” Diego stared confused.

“Led Zeppelin, you heathens.” Klaus accused lightheartedly as he flickered the lights again for good measure.

The old neon bulbs flickered too much and some clearly needed to be replaced, but what mattered was that the lights were back up and Vanya could stop using her powers altogether.

“I knew it was Led Zeppelin.” Luther muttered defensively and earned himself a high five from Klaus.

“How the hell did you do that?” Diego shot at Klaus accusatorily just as the latter threw the borrowed knife perfectly onto the table next to its owner.

“Stealing power from the grid isn’t that hard.” Klaus stretched his arms over his head, his spine popping as his eyed flickering to an empty space before he droned on in words that clearly weren’t his own. “Just got to make sure not to use too much as night, they notice unusual power surges, and blah blah blah. I get it, shoo, shoo.”

“How do you even know how to do this?” Luther sounded impressed and Klaus preened a little at that and grinned.

“A buddy in our mid-twenties, no idea exactly what age we were, it was a total mescaline year for me.” Klaus tossed his hair back and hummed. “In hindsight, getting electrical advice from a guy that died from electrocution in the bathroom probably wasn’t the smartest thing.”

“Can we get back on track?” Five snapped, not really looking at them. He was checking the boarded windows for vulnerabilities again and clearing out space in the walls for his equations and probability charts.

“Yes. So why can’t we go and stop ourselves from meeting Dad in the sixties?” Allison asked, sternly this time. “And don’t try to dodge the question again, Five.”

“Because he might be an grade A motherfucker, but he gave me a piece of advice that allowed me to save all of our lives in the barn.” Five spoke erratically, shaky and almost shouting, tossing his hands up in frustration before he blipped to Al’s desk and rummaged the drawers for a second sharpie since the one he had previously found was bone dry.

“What are you talking about?” Luther sounded worried, of course he did, they all were.

Five paused his pacing for a moment, jaw tight, complexion pale, sweat staining the collar of his shirt, he was clenching the couple of sharpies in in his hand and had the air of a man fighting with himself; his eyes closed and he took a breath, leg bouncing a little again before he seemed to regain control and blipped the to empty stretch of wall.

“…I don’t have time for this.” The teleporter stated, loud and avoidant.

Allison noticed Klaus watching with a tilted head and the looking away with a depressed expression, as if he was recognizing something he couldn’t stand to see, it caused him to take a longer swig from his flask, only to remember that it was empty and sigh. Luther looked just about ready to insist, Diego frowned and seemed ready for a fight, but Vanya stepped to Five cautiously and placed a hand on his shoulder even as he started scribbling on the wall.

“You do have time though. You literally said we’re stuck here until we figure our identities out, so explain.” Vanya was firm in a way they’d never seen before, but still their soft gentle sister. “Please, Five.”

“Yeah, right now you have more time to explain than ever.” Diego added in, a little too roughly.

“I’m not going to waste my time explaining. You don’t need to know, you just need to do what I tell you for once.” Five snapped, shaking Vanya off and already scribbling on the wall with a very shaky hand.

Allison couldn’t stand it anymore. Secrets were what wrecked their family in the first place. Secrets got her throat slit, secrets drugged her sister until she became a doomsday bomb, secrets had them all isolating Vanya their whole childhood, secrets shoved Vanya into the arms of a serial killer, secrets had Klaus living in the streets without any of them knowing, secrets had Diego fighting alone on the streets every night because he didn’t know anything else, secrets trapped Luther in the moon for years, secrets made her loose Claire, secrets got Ben killed, and now secrets were driving Five out of his mind.

Allison was done with secrets. All they had was each other now and she’d be damned if she let more lies and secrecy tear them apart again!

And yet, tearing them it was because Five was going off the deep end again and all they could do was watch him unravel right in front of their eyes.

Allison grabbed Five’s left arm to stop his scribbles, he immediately tried to shove her off but Allison grabbed him by his shoulder too, she spun him until his back was smack against the wall and he had no choice but to look her in the eye.

“Five, we love you but you’re losing it.” She said in the calmest voice she could muster, her hands cupped his pale cheeks and she sighed. “You even have a fever, you’re making yourself sick.”

Five blipped out of her grasp and returned to his equations. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand.” Allison pleaded, softly.

“Yeah, man, no more secrets, Team Zero.” Diego edged closer, trying his best to be encouraging.

Five just kept writing but he made some snarky remark about ‘team zero’ under his breath as he scratched out a whole equation, hands shaking out of control.

“He can’t stop because he’s still in fight or flight. He’s paranoid and burning out.” Klaus spoke to nobody in particularly and raised his empty flask in salute to the death glare Five sent him. “He’s a soldier, he doesn’t know who he is without the rush, it feels like if he stops everything will come crashing down. Like that story of the dude with the whole planet on his shoulders... I wonder how that guy scratched his ass…”

“Is that true?” Allison turned to Five again. “Five, are you really that lost without an apocalypse to solve?”

It made sense, if Five had spent his entire life with a single goal in mind, what was he going to do when that goal was fulfilled? Had he even had a plan? Or had he planned to just die saving them?

“That’s not it, ok?” Five snapped, and the sharpie in his hand literally snapped in half with him. “I’m trying to fix this! None of you get it, you imbeciles can’t even take care of yourselves and I just can’t… I can’t… Not again…”

Five was having trouble breathing, he had his hands on his wobbly knees and was panting, he kept clutching at his chest like his ribs had suddenly collapsed. Luther, Vanya and Allison were on their knees next to him in a flash but before they could ask what this panic attack was really about, Five was screaming at them.

“I saw you die again, ok?!” Five shouted, he pulled himself back up and away from everyone, he tried to pace all the anxious energy out, but he was clutching his chest and struggling for air. “When you were talking Lila down, the Handler surprised us and shot everyone… I was bleeding out when I remembered Dad’s advice at that damn bar, I used the last of my energy to try to pull back time just a few seconds in a last ditch effort to catch her before she shot us all.”

“And it worked.” Diego reassured, because clearly they were all still alive. He was approaching his brother like one would a cornered animal.

“Obviously.” Five shot back acerbically. “You’re welcome.”

“Five…” Allison stepped up to her brother just as cautiously as Diego, worried that he’d blip away under pressure. “Are you telling us you’ve seen us all die twice in two weeks?”

“And three times in total?” Vanya added, worry heavy in her voice.

“Wait, two weeks?” Klaus sounded confused.

“It was two weeks for him, he wasn’t stuck in the sixties like we were.” Luther explained calmly.

“Holy shit.” Klaus and Vanya replied at the same time, both sporting identical expressions of shock.

“You were bleeding out and you still saved us?” Allison couldn’t help but feel awe and be moved by her brother but the more she thought about it the more horrified she became. “Wait, didn’t you nearly bleed out from a shrapnel wound just before the first apocalypse too?”

“But I didn’t.” Five pointed a stubborn finger at her as if he was making a point.

“He also nearly killed himself.” Luther now, everyone but Klaus was slowly surrounding Five, and they all gave the big guy deeply concerned looks. “No, I mean literally, he got into a fight his older self to try and get a briefcase for us while you were all rescuing Vanya.”

“Didn’t you also singlehandedly kill the Commission’s entire board of directors because of a deal to save us?” Diego added, arms cross and an angry frown on his face that Allison recognized as a mask for his worry.

“Was that why he came back covered in blood?” Luther turned to Diego and received a nod in return.

“Yes! Yes, ok?!” Five snapped, feeling trapped and blipping away from the surrounding siblings. “And you all still missed the window I got us, I went through hell and all I needed you to do was one thing, just one, and you couldn’t even do that!”

“We’re sorry but…” Vanya began to apologize in earnest almost immediately.

“No! No! The fucked part is that you don’t even get to be sorry. I was the moron for believing any of you could keep a damn deadline!” Five was panting, he still seemed to be having trouble getting enough air in his lungs. “Handler was playing me from the start, I knew that deadline was goddamn trap!”

Five had to stop and lean into the side on the ring, taking fast shallow breaths, he was sweating bullets again and shaking like electricity was going through his veins.

“Five, are you ok, buddy?” Klaus was closest now and rubbed his brother’s back but, like with Allison, Five smacked him away with a snarl, anger and distress mingling together into an explosive cocktail.

“Five…” Allison approached again, wrapping an arms around him no matter how much he struggled. She was quickly joined by Klaus and Vanya smothering their kind-of-older-but-smaller sibling in a concerned hug. 

The kindness seemed to be the last drop, something cracked under the pressure, the floodgates opened and Five suddenly couldn’t shut up.

“Forty-five years! Forty-five fucking years alone in a goddamn wasteland, feeding off cockroaches and expired food. Forty-five years constantly surrounded by ash rain and the stench of decay because there were bodies everywhere, just rotting out on the open. Forty-five years just studying and working on and on and on to find a way back to save all of your asses! Forty-five years where the only thing keeping me from blowing my brains out was a mannequin I imprinted on and the hope of seeing all of you again!”

Five had to stop to breathe again, the air rattling erratically in his lungs and coming out in wet sobs, he kept trying to wipe the evidence from his face as he pulled away from everyone and began to pace again, just to avoid their eyes and still screaming in hysterics.

“And then the Commission! Training until murder was the only thing I knew to do, until I couldn’t even feel anything anymore, they changed me in ways even I don’t understand and took away my humanity. Years killing innocents for a job I didn’t care about! All that bullshit just in hopes that they’d throw me a bone and let me see you all again, all that hell just so I could save my family and FOR WHAT?! We nearly caused the apocalypse twice, I had to force you all to leave your loved ones, we’re stuck in a parallel timeline where we don’t even know who we are, the old fart abandoned us, our brother doesn’t know us anymore and were living in a decrepit old gym!”

“Five!” Allison yelled, snapping him out of his spiraling rant.

“What?!” Five stopped walking and turned on her with an expression that mixed rage, frustration and anguish in his face.

“When was the last time you just… stopped?” Allison asked, worried but kind.

“Stopped?” Five blinked, surprised enough by the question that his expression calmed into a pinched frown.

“Slept? Took a break?” Luther suggested, supporting his sister.

“I am calm!” Five snapped loudly, hands balled into fists.

“I can hear your heartbeat, Five, you’re really the furthest thing from calm.” Vanya explained, full of worry and looking on the edge of tears herself.

“Are you all blind?” Five screamed, heedless of anyone’s feelings. “Have you not seen all I’ve been doing for the past two weeks? I can’t stop! I can’t until I fix everything! I can’t be the reason you kept suffering, I just can’t! It’s my power, my responsibility, I have to fix it!”

“What you have to do is lean on us.” Luther pleaded. “We messed up as much as you did, hell, you warned us of the consequences and we ignored you. Let’s fix this as a family.”

“And none of this is your fault, all you ever did was save us.” Allison tried to smile reassuringly.

“Even if you were a complete asshole all the time…” Diego started and then quickly backtracked based on the glares he received. “That doesn’t change the fact that we trust you. About time you did the same for us.”

“You’re not alone in a empty wasteland anymore, Five.” Vanya hugged him with tears in her eyes, she couldn’t help but remember another sibling saying something so similar to her. “You never will be again, we won’t let that happen.”

Five seemed to calm down, he hugged Vanya back, fisting his hands into her coat and only grumbled minimally when the others turned it into a group hug. When they pulled away, Five’s eyes were red and he was still shaky, but he pulled in a steadier breath and straightened up.

“Ok. Let’s start planning together them.” Five announced.

“Oh no, you’re taking a damn nap first, old man.” Klaus announced.

“Yeah, Allison is right, you’ve made yourself sick.” Vanya cupped Five’s pale feverish cheek and frowned in concern.

“That’s beside the point. Didn’t you hear me? I can’t stop!” Five began to argue again.

“I heard a rumor…” Allison began, the rippling echo of the words already chilling the air.

“Don’t you dare, Three…” Five argued but then the white haze fell over his eyes and he went still.

“I heard a rumor that you’re really tired and you just want to sleep.”

Five yawned and mumbled something about getting them back for this before promptly keeling over, Diego caught him just in time and carried him to the boxing ring where they made a makeshift pillow with Five’s blazer and allowed him to sleep.

Allison felt… conflicted.

She sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. They had just had a ton of new information dropped on them, traumas Five would never had admitted to if they hadn’t pulled them out of him; she hurt for her brother, she really did, and she wanted to help but was she going to fall down the rabbit hole by using her power again?

Moments later, Luther’s hand landed on her shoulder.

“You ok?” Luther gave a sympathetic look. He knew exactly why this rumor bothered her, and he knew why she wanted to avoid her abilities.

Allison was absolutely sure that what she had just done was necessary, she knew Five wouldn’t stop and she was just trying to take care of him, nobody had done so for almost half a century and he deserved better. But it had been that exact rumor that turned Patrick against her and served as proof to lose custody of Claire.

There was always a price and Allison had long since decided that she didn’t want to pay it…

And then suddenly she realized, in that exact moment - she’d pay any price for her rumors if it meant keeping someone she loved safe. These weren’t her petty rumors to get what she wanted, these weren’t selfish desires, these weren’t for a power trip, these were rumors for the sake of someone else, for her family, and for them she could pay any price.

“You know, I think I am.” Allison smiled up at Luther.

“Ok, so what now?” Vanya murmured, she was checking on Five and noted that he was still burning up and looking anemic.

“I think we plan for when he wakes up. He’s going to be pissed.” Diego chuckled, apparently delighted to see their tiny brother taken down a peg.

“Good luck with that.” Klaus flipped on his hat and prepared to leave.

“You got anything better to do?” Diego shot back.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” Klaus grinned, arms wide as he stumbled backwards to the door. “Now that that show is over and all.”

“Where are you going?” Luther asked, nervous.

“To get a drink!” Klaus retorted loudly, already out the door.

“You don’t have money!” Allison called after him.

Klaus backtracked to poke his laughing head back into door. “Don’t need it.”

With that Klaus was gone, Diego and Luther both rolled their eyes and dismissed it. Five was passed out with Vanya and Allison at a loss of what to do.

“Where are we going to sleep? It’s April, without blankets we’ll freeze.” Allison commented.

Diego got up and disappeared to the backrooms of the gym for a bit, only to reappear minutes later.

“Please tell me you didn’t go and check if you’re old room was still there.” Luther snorted.

“N-no.” Diego snapped but there was a slight tint to his cheeks. “I went to see if there was anything in storage but it’s mostly old cleaning products and dusty bath towels.”

Luther just nodded and shrugged off his jacket to drape over Five, then he pointed at the girls. “It’s big enough that maybe you two can share with him.”

“What about you?” Allison was touched but concerned, she ran a hand up Luther’s leathery arm and, as a matter of fact, he felt as warm as a furnace.

“Four years on the moon kind of got me used to the cold, this is nothing.” Luther shrugged.

“What about me?” Diego’s scowl was practically a pout.

“There’s an obvious solution here.” Vanya smiled mischievously, looking between her brothers. “Luther puts out heat like a furnace, we could all just cuddle for warmth and hunt down some blankets tomorrow.”

“I am _not_ going to cuddle.” Diego looked appalled and Allison just smacked his arm.

“Oh please, like we didn’t do that already when we had to camp out for training.” She rolled her eyes at her brother’s stubbornness.

“We were twelve.” Diego countered. “And Luther peed himself that one time.”

“I did not! You and Ben pranked me!” Luther defended immediately and turned a deep shade of crimson.

“Whatever you say, big guy.” Diego retorted condescendingly.

“Come on, a family pile is better than freezing.” Allison decided for all of them. “And it will help us keep an eye on Five.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided I'm going to approach soooo many of the sibling's problems. Also, I might comic things... Like some of their powers. ;)


End file.
